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When did the idea of "money" first come about?
SanctionII
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"Money" being any item [i.e., metal disk, large round stone with a hole in the middle, sea shells, shiney rock, sack of grain, etc.] that a group of humans agrees to assign a specific value to, with the understanding that with such an item a person could exchange same for goods [i.e., a loaf of bread] or services [repairing a broken spear] provided to him or her by another person; thereby allowing the group to evolve beyond a "barter" system?
I know that "money" in the form of stamped precious metal disks first appeared 4000-5000 years ago and presume the idea or concept of money probably appeared long before stamped precious metal disks did.
Also, in addition to when the idea of money first came about, where did it first come about?
I know that "money" in the form of stamped precious metal disks first appeared 4000-5000 years ago and presume the idea or concept of money probably appeared long before stamped precious metal disks did.
Also, in addition to when the idea of money first came about, where did it first come about?
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<< <i>I know that "money" in the form of stamped precious metal disks first appeared 4000-5000 years ago........ >>
Coinage started about 600BC or about 2600 years ago.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Anyone else have thoughts.
This seems like a great topic. Thanks for thinking to ask it.
Please visit my website Millcitynumismatics.com
Here is a nice article about the subject.
--Severian the Lame
If you assume money as placing a "value" to a certain object for a good or service, then it has been hypothesized that beads as old as 80,000 years ago from a cave site in South Africa could have been perceived/used as a form of trade unit....although proving this would be near impossible. And certainly objects of greater age could have been used as a form of trade with a preassumed value (but again, proving this would be quite difficult)!
and these led directly to the invention of writing which was even more important
than money. The Sumerian farmers used small discs with engraved representations
of farm assets to fascilitate trading. As time progressed the farms became larger and
the discs needed to represent multiple units. In other words rather than trading twenty
discs representing chicken for a load of wheat they'd trade two discs representing ten each.
It was soon realized that if a symbol could represent an idea then it might represent a sound
or a word. Writing developed in Sumeria and Egypt nearly simultaneously though Sumeria usually
gets credit for the invention and the Egyptians get credit for making it practical with the invention of
papyrus and the reed pen. It is Thoth who was the God of writing and scribes.
Writing was well established by 3000 BC but it was another 2350 years or so before the concept of mon-
ey arose. Barter was the order of the day and it was often difficult to make fair exchanges. For quite some
time there was a use of silver, gold, or electrum (mostly electrum) to make "change" since it had a widely recog-
nized value and was easily divisible. There were even standard weights and sometimes disc-shaped that served
as a sort of proto-money.
I find it rather remarkable that like most inventions writing and money were accidents and tokens preceded true coins.
<< <i>probably the same time prostitution started
you might be onto something there
might raise the question... "Which came first, the chick or the means to pay for her?"
334a. N. has passed by his broad-house; the fury of the great sea has avoided him.
334b. His fare is not accepted in the great ship;
http://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=fare+utterance+"sacred+texts+egypt+index+previous+next"&d=4695945511501882&mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&w=bef2c9df,d3b2a36f
I'm not sure how the experts date this but it was found inscribed in a pyramid from about
2300 BC and believed to possibly date much older. I believe it was authored around 2700
BC.
The concept of "fare" is pretty complicated and I'm not sure what the referent is. There may
have been a fairly standard barter item used to trade for passage in boats. "N" is the dead
king who has become an "ascended" God upon death.
https://acoinshop.com/ —-> https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
<< <i>probably the same time prostitution started
They do not call it the world's oldest profession for nothing.
survival and was what we'd call bartering but was nothing less than money. I think Webster
says that money is: something generally accepted as a medium of exchange, a measure of value.
Until a proper form of money came about, such as sea shells, round rocks with holes in the middle,
it most surely was just bartering. What do you have that I want and what will it take to buy it?
Stones, precious and semi-precious, were also used as money. Jade in Orient, coral in Pacific were
monies of some sort as well.
Interesting topic!
bob
is known from before the time writing existed but in Egypt 10% of crops and herds
were "paid' to the king. There was also "corvee labor" which was, no doubt, a
sort of tax that was used to build state projects.